One In Five Getting Advertised Broadband Speed

INSTANT web pages, music downloading in the blink of an eye and smooth-streaming videos of monkeys riding motorbikes – that’s what we have all come to expect from the technological wonder that is broadband. Yet for many web users, things never seem as fast they ought to be. Or as fast as they’ve been lead to believe.

According to a new survey by moneysupermarket.com, only one in five broadband users is gets to enjoy the high-speed internet access they signed up for. Indeed, the survey reveals that 30 per cent of broadband users feel that they have been misled by their provider over the speed of their connection.

Sky broadband is one service which is apparently failing to deliver the goods, with only six per cent of customers who signed up for the 16Mb package actually able to enjoy the top speed. Competitors such as TalkTalk, Orange and BT are also guilty of providing surprisingly slow services.

Moneysupermarket.com’s Jason Lloyd says: “Line interference, the quality of wiring into and around your home, its distance from the telephone exchange and the number of people sharing the same provider connection in your area at the same time affect broadband speed.”

Lloyd is also concerned by the fact that consumers are not made aware of these issues by the providers. Says he: “Providers don’t expressly give you these details when you sign up, instead putting it the contract small print. Most damning for providers is 30 per cent of broadband customers feel misled now they know what speed they actually get.”